CAC Home Rodeo Competition

Elliot Johnson, Cactus Staff Writer
March 25, 2016

During the weekend of March 12th and 13th, CAC’s rodeo team competed against other college teams in the Grand Canyon Region. At Florence’s Charles Whitlow Rodeo Grounds, rodeo fans and supporters gathered to cheer on the competitors. It was my first time watching a CAC rodeo but growing up in Casa Grande I’ve been to quite a few others. It’s always exciting to watch these people and their animals do their best in the arena.

Both day’s events started around 1pm with families and supporters of the riders filling the stand around the arena. The emcee for both days was Jody Carper, a professional rodeo announcer from California. During the event openings, riders would run laps around the arena with flags of sponsors as Carper announced them. After the sponsors, he said a prayer to protect the riders and animals during the following events. Then Victoria Covert, a rider from CAC, did a lap around the arena with the American flag. When all of that was done, he introduced the different schools that had riders participating in the events. With CAC being the home team, they had to save their grand entrance for last. Riders had to be feeling the home field advantage as they raced into the arena one after the other. It’s was impressive as they showed off the skill and control of their animals right away.

The national anthem was sung by CAC rider Cheyanne Sherwood. After that, the music started to play over the speakers to try and pick up the energy of the crowd. Between the music play list and Carper, it was nonstop entertainment. The competitions for the days were all pretty intense. The men’s competitions included bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, steer wrestling, and bull riding. Women’s competitions included barrel racing, breakaway roping, and goat tying. Men and women both participated in the team roping.

As of March 14th Central Arizona College’s Men’s Rodeo team is #1 for the Grand Canyon Region with 698.50 points according to the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. CAC’s Women’s team is #3 for the region with 120 points. Every contestant at the rodeo did a great job representing their college or university during the events over the two day competition. Of the top 5 in the all-around men’s bracket, 3 of them are CAC students. Ky Barry is number 1 with 195 points. He also placed 4th in the tie down roping and 3rd in the tie down roping header categories. Preston Chamberlain is 3rd in the all-around men’s with 119 points,while also placing 5th in steer wrestling and 6th in tie down roping. Keaton Schaffer placed 4th in the all-around with 101 points. He also placed 5th for the tie down roping and 7th in the team roping header.

For steer wrestling, CAC’s Owen Salcito placed 2nd and Devon Heimburg-Burris placed 4th. For the tie down roping, CAC’s Brandon Krueger placed 2nd and Brent Keaveny placed 8th. CAC is also home to the number 1 roping team in the region. Pedro Egurrola for header and Steven Gaona for heeler placed 1st in their respective brackets.

In the women’s all-around, CAC made two spots in the top 6. Dally Sue Smith made 4th place with 166.50 point, with 2nd place in the breakaway roping and 6th place in the goat tying. Shyanne Summerfield placed 6th in the women’s all around with 54.50 points and 7th in both goat tying and barrel racing.

CAC’s Whitney Finley placed 3rd and Lakota Bird places 4th in breakaway roping. Aiesha Curley placed 4th in goat tying. Victoria Covert placed 2nd in barrel racing.

These scores and ranks are from the NIRA website which was updated on March 14th and do not reflect any other update since then. The Vaquero and Vaquera riders for the weekend all did great work in their home competition and I wish them good luck in the rest of the season.

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